President John Dramani Mahama has revealed that the Tema Oil Refinery (TOR) will begin refining Ghana’s own crude oil in June 2026, marking a renewed push to boost local value addition and reduce reliance on imported petroleum products. He explained that a shipment from Ghana’s offshore fields will be delivered to TOR for processing, describing the initiative as a revival of a programme first introduced during his earlier administration.
Addressing a diaspora town hall meeting in London on Sunday, May 31, Mahama emphasised the importance of maximising benefits from Ghana’s natural resources through local processing. “We are just about to make history again. We did it in my first term but after we left office, it didn’t continue. In June we are delivering a parcel of Ghanaian crude from our own oil fields to the Tema Oil Refinery to process,” he said.
According to him, Ghana continues to export raw materials such as gold, bauxite and manganese for processing abroad, only to import finished products at a higher cost. “We process manganese, bauxite, gold and everything and then we ship them out to be processed by somebody else. In that processing, we are creating jobs in that other person’s economy and then the products for which we sent the ores abroad are made into finished products and those finished products are exported back to us,” he said.
Energy sector
President Mahama stated that his administration inherited an energy sector debt estimated at $1.5 billion when it took office. He explained that a $500 million World Bank Partial Risk Guarantee, which was meant to cover payments to the Italian energy company ENI and its partners for gas supplied from the Sankofa Field, had been completely depleted before his government assumed power. However, he noted that this guarantee has since been fully restored to its original value through initiatives taken by the Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Finance.
“At the time we took over, that World Bank guarantee had been drawn down to zero. Today, thanks to the efforts of the Minister of Energy and the Minister of Finance, we have successfully restored the World Bank guarantee to its full amount of $500 million. As a result, the quantity of gas supplied to us has also been increased, which we use for power generation,” he said.
Investment in oil and gas
The President also announced fresh investment commitments from existing partners in Ghana’s upstream petroleum sector. He said partners in the Jubilee Field had agreed to invest US$2 billion in drilling additional wells to increase oil and gas production, while ENI would invest a further US$1.5 billion in the Offshore Cape Three Points (OCTP) project.
“The Jubilee partners, we signed an agreement for them to invest another US$2 billion in drilling new wells offshore Ghana in order to increase the amount of oil and gas that we produce. We have also signed with ENI to invest another US$1.5 billion in the OCTP field to increase the amount of gas and oil that we produce,” he said.
Power producers
Touching on debts owed to independent power producers (IPPs), President Mahama said the government had refinanced liabilities estimated at US$1.5 billion and put in place a payment schedule. “We have refinanced that debt, given them a payment plan and we have met every single payment to them. They too are happy and producing power and our power sector is stable,” he said.
Source: Mohammed Ali
